"He had breasts. Not large ones. Small breasts, like a flat-chested woman temporarily swollen with milk. Then with his red beard, his face of a sunburnt forty-five-year-old man, stern-visaged, long-nosed, thin-lipped, he began to nurse. The baby stopped wailing and sucked greedily." -Marge Piercy, from "Woman on the Edge of Time" (p. 134)

So, in the hopes of remedying some of this ignorance, and in light of my experience as a fellow traveler of the Green Party of California (and, for some small time, of a fledgling effort in Ohio) I've decided to publish (at least on the Web) "A GUIDE TO THE GREENS (FOR THE UNINFORMED DEMOCRAT)".

Part 1: WHO ARE THE GREENS?

The Green Party is a political party of utopians who imagine that they can create a political party out of noble ideals. These ideals, as stated by the Green Party itself, are outlined in great detail on Cameron Spitzer's unofficial Green Party "Ten Key Values" page. Pretty much all of these values are innocuous ones. Together, they form a utopian vision of a global human society that would be better than the society we have today. The most contentious of these values would have to be "Community-Based Economics" -- there are situations where communitarian economics is not the best solution to problems arising from the inability to "make a living."

Part 2: HOW ARE THE GREENS UTOPIAN?

Too often, the Green Party attempts to resolve differences within the ranks by using "consensus process" -- talking until everyone agrees. This allows a few people in attendance at Green meetings to "gum up the works" -- block action indefinitely against the will of the majority.